The throwers have already competed, but the rest of Idaho’s track and field athletes haven’t hit the track since the Idaho men’s WAC Indoor Championship finish on Feb. 28. The Idaho women’s team placed third at the meet.
Joeseph Charles winds up for another throw of the shotput at the track and field practice from Thursday at the Dan O’Brien Track Complex.
Now, the Vandals open with a full team for the outdoor season Saturday at Spokane for the Whitworth Sam Adams Classic.
“We’re pretty much competing just about everybody that’s healthy and good to go,” Idaho coach Wayne Phipps said. “It’s going to be a pretty big number for us. We’ll probably end up having close to 30 on each side compete this weekend.”
The Vandals are opening the season a week later than they normally do because the indoor season went a week late.
“I felt like we needed to make sure we finished off what I like to call our transition block from indoor to outdoor where we like to hit the weights a little harder, our volumes a little bit higher,” Phipps said.
During the indoor championships, some of the Vandals struggled with competing over several straight days. So Phipps said his plan for the opening meet is to simulate a conference environment by having some athletes compete in several different events. He’ll also have several athletes compete in a hard workout the day before the meet to simulate conference prelims.
“If we are going to have a chance to win both men and women (at the WAC Championships), it’s going to rely on some key people to do multiple events,” Phipps said. “I think it’s good on occasion, not too often, but on occasion, to simulate what they’re going to have to do at conference. I think this is a good weekend to do that.”
Going from the indoor track and field season to the outdoor season requires transition. In addition to weather factoring into the events, many athletes compete in longer events. The hurdlers go from competing in the 60-meters indoors to 100-meters for the women, 110-meters for men and 400-meter races.
Idaho had several freshman and first-year Vandals standout during the indoor season, including jumper Arphaxad Carroll who was instrumental in the Idaho men’s championship win.
“I think of a lot of the freshman at (indoor) conference really learned a lot,” Phipps said. “Having their first conference experience, it’s hard to tell them what it’s going to be like so I think you learn a lot, grow up a lot after your first conference meet. You can tell that the freshman are really excited for the outdoor season because they get it a little more now.”
Idaho’s competition in Spokane will come from northwest schools Washington State, Gonzaga, Spokane Community College and the host team, Whitworth.
“I’m really confident in our preparation and really excited to see how athletes do after all the hard work they’ve put in,” Phipps said. “This has been a great block of training. I’ve been really impressed by how hard everybody has worked these last few weeks.”
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]